Trousse d'Olivier Le Daim, barber to Louis XI in brass and leather on a studded wooden core. Two lids open with push-buttons at the top. The larger one reveals three compartments, two of which are covered with engraved brass flaps. One compartment at the bottom. Accompanied by two autographed documents, including one concerning its provenance. Height 8.5 Long. 19 Depth 6 cm. A carbon-14 test (Ciram, Bordeaux, March 19, 2024) established two dating intervals: the first between 1457 and 1529, the second between 1542 and 1634. Provenance according to tradition : - found at Château de Plessis-lèz-Tours by a descendant of Olivier Le Daim, passed on by succession ; - collection Réville, then Sauvageot ; - collection of Baron Michel de Trétaigne, inherited; - collection of Baron de Warenghien, inherited; - Somme collection. A brass and leather covered wooden box reputed to have belonged to Olivier Le Daim, barber to French King Louis XI. With two handwritten documents, one of them highlighting the provenance of the box. Bibliography : - Charles Fuinel, "La trousse d'Olivier Le Dain", in "Note d'Art et d'Archéologie", Part 1, T.1, Paris, Mersch, 1889, p. 240. - Séance du 22 février 1931" in Bulletin de la Société historique et archéologique de Dunkerque et de la Flandre Maritime, T.XXVIII, 1931, p. 249. Related works: - Ewald Berger, "Prunk-Kassetten: Ornamental Caskets", Arnoldsche Art Publishers, 1998, for a 17th-century German casket reproduced on p. 235, no. 147; - Oliver Impey and C.J.A Jörg, "Japanese Export Lacquer 1580-1850", Amsterdam, Hotei Publishing, 2005, for a Japanese lacquer box for the English market, reproduced p. 115, no. 210; - Nagashima, Meiko, "Japan. Export Lacquer: Reflection of the West in Black and Gold Makie , cat. exp. Kyoto, National Museum, 2008, for a Japanese lacquer box for the English market, reproduced p. 128, no. 88. LA TROUSSE DU BARBIER DE LOUIS XI, by Brice Langlois A rare case with an exciting history Few objects from the 15th century are preserved today. Among the few known, the casket of Jeanne de France (1464-1505), youngest daughter of Louis XI, was kept with her relics at the Annonciade monastery in Bourges until the French Revolution, when it was donated to the Musée des Souverains by Jules Dumontet in 1853 (Louvre, MS204). Around the same period, our kit "d'Olivier Le Daim, barbier de Louis XI" entered the collections of engraver Jean-Baptiste Reville (1767-1825), then violinist Alexandre-Charles Sauvageot (1781-1860), before belonging to Baron Michel de Trétaigne (1780-1869). Trétaigne, a physician, took part in the campaigns of the Empire, before returning to service under the Restoration as a staff physician in Paris. Luxurious medical kit The medical purpose of the kit aroused this collector's interest. While it fits into a typology that some imagine as travel cases, possibly German, from the second half of the 17th century (Berger, op.cit.), others recognize it as boxes of surgical instruments. The most luxurious models, in lacquer, were exported from Japan as early as 1618 for the English market (Imprey and Meiko op.cit). Charles Funiel, in an article published in 1889, points out that the lower part holds razors, while the upper part is used as a receptacle for soap, linen and other small items - and with good reason, since Olivier Le Daim's function as a barber included minor surgery. Louis XI's black advisor The kit was found by one of Olivier Le Daim's descendants at the Manoir de la Rabaterie, which he occupied in the immediate vicinity of the Château de Plessis-lèz-Tours. While Olivier Le Daim (1428-1484) inspired romantic writers such as Walter Scott, Victor Hugo and Casimir Delavigne, in the 15th century he was one of the most intimate figures of the sovereign Louis XI (1423-1483). Referred to as Olivier "Le Mauvais" or "Le Diable", due to the extensive translation of his Flemish name and the influence of his misdeeds, the king imposed a substitution to these nicknames: Olivier de Neckere thus became Olivier Le Daim. He was an outstanding example of social elevation: of modest extraction, he became Count of Meulan in 1474, after seizing the town of Tournai. The pinnacle of his diplomatic career came on September 5, 1480, when he received the Cardinal de Bourbon and the papal legate, Julien della Rovere, himself elected to the pontificate in 1503. The king's death in 1483 also marked the downfall of Olivier Le Daim, who was hanged after being accused of a number of crimes, which historians today put down to a lack of evidence.